The images of starved, emaciated youngsters from drought-stricken West African countries have faded – at least for now- from our TV sets. So have the reports of huge Soviet crop failures and accounts of mass famines in India and Bangladesh. In their places are encouraging reports of record or near-record harvests in the United States Midwest, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. The overall world food supply made a slight gain during 1975. And 1976 promises to be an even better year despite record drought and heat waves in much of Europe, the western United States, and Australia. But the surface impression that the food population crisis is over is an illusion. At the World Food Conference of 1976, held at Iowa State University in late June, delegates were told that the world faces not only food shortages of a sporadic short-term nature, but "chronically acute shortages as far ahead as we can see." The warning was given in the opening address by Dr. Clifton Wharton, president of Michigan State University.

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